Better
by The Seven of Us
Summary: "You aren't your father, Jim. You did better, even." Oneshot. Rating for language. By Percy.


**Better: "You aren't your father, Jim. You did better, even."**

His whole life, James Tiberius Kirk has been trying to live up to his father's reputation.

 _"Friend."_

 _"Captain."_

 _"Like a brother."_

 _"Hero."_

 _"Captain…for twelve minutes…he saved eight hundred lives."_

 _"It's in his blood, I suppose…"_

 _"_ George _?!"_

Admittedly, the last was from an elderly coworker of his father's, but it didn't mean that it didn't make him wince.

And it wasn't like he hadn't had a couple of opportunities to do some good in the world.

 _Frank._ (He wished he'd killed the bastard.)

 _Tarsus IV._ (Nineteen children in six months at the age of fourteen was his record until the Narada incident.) (He didn't think about the other four thousand, fifty-three that were sentenced to be murdered by someone they were supposed to have trusted.) *

 _The Academy._ (He didn't care what bullshit the officers spouted about the Kobayashi Maru, that was fucking stupid to teach _any_ Command officer to roll over and die.)

"Damnit, Jim! You have broken ribs! Leaning like that could puncture a lung!"

"I'm never having children," he mused aloud.

"Well, thank god for that," Bones sniped. "Otherwise Joanna would have to train to be a medical officer and follow it around to make sure that it didn't do something stupid, because I'm _sure_ that it would inherit their brains and self-preservation from its dad."

That persuaded a smile out of the Acting Captain. "Yeah, but it's a cute image to have, though."

Bones grumbled and grumped and griped, but thankfully, the Captain didn't point out his small hesitation of stamping down a laugh at the image of his hard-headed daughter scrambling after and berating a bouncing, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl several years Joanna's junior.

 **LINE BREAK**

Pike was bound to a hoverchair, likely for the rest of his life. When he walked in, he shook Pike's hand and immediately sat down so that the former-Captain, soon-to-be-Admiral wouldn't have to have a crick in his neck.

"I'm proud of you, Jim," Pike said, a kindly quirk of a smile appearing on his face. The already premature lines seemed to deepen with the happiness and tiredness warring on his features.

"Nineteen at fourteen, nine and a half billion at twenty-five."

 _Four thousand, fifty-three at fourteen; six billion at twenty-five_.

Pike scowled at him. "You aren't your father, Jim. You did better, even. Nine and a half billion into twenty four into sixty is still over six million. Hell, even nineteen into six months is still three more people than your father ever managed to save at fourteen. Or twenty-four, at that matter."

He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands. "And people still think of me as the son of George Kirk."

"They also didn't know about Tarsus IV," Pike said calmly, maneuvering his chair closer.

There was a lengthy paused, and then he said, "No. No, they didn't. And hopefully, they won't."

"You have enough of a shitstorm of press as is right now," Pike said, amusement crinkling his eyes. "And unless some of your misadventures take a vacation, they'll still be harping after you."

He let out a snort of laughter, his brilliant blues coming up and resting on his mentor's face. "I doubt that'll happen."

"No," Pike agreed ruefully. "Not a chance."

 ***Tarsus IV was something that happened to JK in The Original Series. We're shown the scene of Jim running the car off the cliff in the beginning of Star Trek: 2009, but the ramifications aren't really shown. Long story short, that car was his abusive step-father's car and his homelife was finally looked into. JK was taken away from Frank (the abusive step-father, also mentioned in my story) and sent off-planet to his mother's brother on the planet Tarsus IV. There was a famine and this crazy governor ordered half the population killed. JK was on the list (I think) and he escaped the initial culling and dragged his cousins away from the rest of the population. He went back frequently to get food and supplies and occasionally came back with more kids, most of which were his age (fourteen) or younger. He ended up saving twenty-six kids from the executions, but seven died through starvation, sickness, or battle wounds. He got captured a few weeks before Starfleet arrived and was tortured by the Governor Kodos for information on where the other kids were and just barely escaped death,** _ **again**_ **. He's one of the few that people call the** _ **Tarsus Nine**_ **, because there are nine people that was able to see and identify Governor Kodos and live to tell about it. He and two of his kids were three parts of the Tarsus Nine. But once he was treated for the results of his extensive torture, he fled Starfleet headquarters and back to Iowa (he's now back on Earth), and the child savior of Tarsus IV disappeared because he used the nickname of JT while he was on Tarsus IV. Pike was one of the original responders to the massacre and he was the only one to recognize George Kirk's blue eyes, and that's the only reason why he knows about Tarsus IV and JK's involvement.**


End file.
